Supermarkets, major chain department stores and most major drug chain stores provide their customers with a large shopping cart, well known in size and appearance to the public. Frequently, the major department and drug stores also provide a small shopping cart. The shopping carts, large or small, have a forward pivoting grill section which when extended forwardly, provides a shelf compartment to hold small items or items which are susceptible to compression i.e., leafy vegetables, small quantities of fruits and vegetables and the like. Most small shopping carts and some large shopping carts have a continuous grill and fixed back side. A few small and most conventional large shopping carts have a back side which has a bifurcated backside opening and a pivotally mounted plastic plate which can be raised into contact the cart backside to close the bifurcated openings or left flat on the aforementioned shelf to accommodate the insertion of the legs of a child so the child faces the parent with its legs extending over the backside of the cart and its back resting against the aforesaid forwardly pivoting grill section. A child in such a shopping cart sits on the hard plastic plate, its back against the equally hard forward pivoting grill section and its legs and groin in contact with the rigid section of the backside of the shopping cart forming the bifurcated opening in the backside of the shopping cart. In addition to the discomfiture of being so seated, there is no restraint provided against the sideways movement of the child, either against the natural inclination of the child to reach out literally to grab at something or because of its lack of lateral stability because of its very youthful age. Currently, a very young child is carried by a parent in a chest carrier or a back carrier. The chest carrier is an inconvenience to the carrying parent when making selections of fruits and vegetables by the very nature of the forwardly extending protuberauce. A child too old to be in a chest or back carrier is placed on the shelf portion of the shopping cart primarily to prevent the child from wandering around to the discomfort and distraction of childless shoppers as well as to prevent such a child from satisfying its curiosity natural grabbing instincts of collecting any item within their reach. While the placement of older youngster within the bifurcated, shelf-seating backside of the shopping cart does provide a solution to the wandering, item-grabbing youngster there is yet possible a lateral movement by a child on the bifurcated shelf. The very nature of the metal grilled shopping cart and pivotable plastic plate is not a comfortable seating for a child. From observation, it may be assumed that the discomforture expressed by a young child in such a shopping cart is as much a discontent with being so restrained as being uncomfortable in such a seating arrangement.
As has been ascertained from the public records available, there is currently no device available which provides comfort to the child seated in a shopping cart or which can provide for the substantial restraint of the child against lateral movement.